


Money Isn't Everything

by Loremaiden



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book: The Hound of the Baskervilles, Community: watsons_woes, Gen, Major Character Death (offscreen), Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-31 02:49:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6452491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loremaiden/pseuds/Loremaiden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's skull collection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Money Isn't Everything

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the April 2016 prompt (Stormy Weather) on Watson's Woes.

Harsh light splashed along the walls of Dr. Mortimer's candlelit study for an instant before disappearing as quickly as it had come. The thunder cracked moments later, drowning out the patter of thick raindrops against the window.

The evening storm did not disturb the man. He was too deep in his thoughts to even notice it, absentmindedly sipping his tea and reading once more the letter he had received earlier today.

Correspondence had come more frequently in the weeks following the Baskerville tragedy. There were a growing number of men of means, if not always men of education, who had taken great interest in his latest scientific acquisition. The letter in his hands at the moment came from a professor of mathematics, of all things, offering a sum beyond the rest; even willing to accept only a certain half of the collection for the same price if Mortimer did not wish to part with all of it.

He removed his reading glasses with a deep sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. If he accepted the offer, he would be financially sound for the rest of his days. He would even have the means to move beyond the rank of humble M.R.C.S.

And yet...

He rose from his desk and walked over to the mantelpiece to admire his twin treasures. Mortimer opened the glass case and cradled the skull on the right, caressing it with his index finger as he would the face of a newborn babe. To think his plans almost came to naught, he mused, with his quarry's initial skepticism and then sending his assistant in his place. He thought he had lost his chance then. But if it were not for the fear over the safety of the skull's previous owner, that commonplace man with conventional supra-orbital development and an unremarkable parietal fissure, he never would have obtained the skull he had coveted for years. How could one put a price on such loyalty? How could he sell something to which he owed so much?

With a contented sigh, the doctor gently placed the skull back in position and closed the case shut. He would pen his refusal in the morning, he thought to himself, as another flash of lightning illuminated the pride and joy of his collection.

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson were an inseparable pair in life. They should remain so in death.


End file.
